Good Food for Camden - Sustain

Good Food FOr CamdenWhat we mean by Good Food‘Good Food’ is food that is healthy, of good quality, nutritious,affordable, and sustainable, thereby contributing to reducing healthinequalities whilst also minimising environmental impact. This willequate to nutritionally balanced meals using fresh, locally grown orreared seasonal produce.A healthy diet consists of consuming a wide variety of nutritiousfoods each day, while eating only small amounts of foods high infat (especially saturated), salt and sugar. A healthy balanced diet isbased on a variety of foods from the five food groups in the FoodStandards Agency’s (FSA) Eatwell Plate (see appendix 1 page 42).Therefore Good Food will equate to nutritionally balanced mealsusing fresh, locally grown or reared seasonal produce.Put simply, ‘sustainable food is food that meets the needs of thepresent without compromising the ability of future generations tomeet their own needs’ 2 . Sustainable food is bought, consumed andprepared with as little impact on the environment as possible, for afair price; makes a positive contribution to the local economy; isgrown locally, in season, and fairly traded; and is grown accordingto audited criteria that includes the environment, ethical trading andanimal welfare.Unsustainable food is likely to be: highly processed; transportedlong distances unnecessarily; grown in heated and or artificially litgreenhouses; grown or reared using chemicals unnecessarily; notlikely to return a good livelihood for the people producing it, but thisis not an exhaustive list. These types of processes cause damageto people, animals and the environment and typically rely heavilyon non-renewable resources such as oil and coal.For more details on what is meant by ‘Good Food’, see:■■■■the Food Standards Agency’s Eatwell website:www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/eatwellplateSustain’s sustainable food guidelines:www.sustainweb.org/sustainablefood6